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George Richmond, R.A.
(1809-1896)
Self-Portrait in Margate
12 May 1871
Inscribed and dated lower left: "Margate / May 12 1871"
Pen and ink on paper
18.5 x 11 cm
Acquired by a Private Collector, UK
Provenance
By descent from the artist to H.I. Richmond, 1896
His sale, Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 1975, Lot 33
Agnew’s, London, 1976
Private Collection, UK
Exhibited
Thomas Agnew & Sons, Master Drawings and Prints, London, March-April, 1976, no.131
References
[1] The Richmonds visited Margate again in 1872, coinciding with a visit from their close friend Samuel Palmer, and returned once more in 1873
[2] In 1872, the year after Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond painted a now lost work, Sunrise over the Sea at Margate. Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.101
[3] Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.97
[4] ‘In January 1874 Richmond was again offered, at Gladstone’s request, the directorship of the National Gallery. He again promised to think it over, but his refusal was a foregone conclusion.’ Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.104
[5] Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.100
[6] When Richmond died in 1896, The Times wrote ‘in beauty of draughtsmanship and in subtle indication of expression few have surpassed him.’ A.M.W. Stirling, The Richmond Papers from the Correspondence and Manuscripts of George Richmond and his Son, Sir William Richmond, 1926, p.48
This delicate and engaging self-portrait by George Richmond was made on 12 May 1871 in Margate, when the artist was sixty-two years old. Throughout their fifty-year marriage, Richmond and his wife, Julia Richmond (née Tatham), frequently spent their holidays in Margate, their first documented visit dating to 1842. [1] It was in the countryside surrounding the town, during visits in 1850 and 1853, that Richmond produced some of his most lyrical landscape watercolours. [2]
In the late summer of 1868, Richmond and his family spent two months holidaying in Folkestone. Raymond Lister, in his biography of the artist, describes how Richmond ‘went for invigorating walks, one of which covered twelve miles, spent whole mornings on the beach enjoying the fresh air, and occasionally fished out at sea.’ [3] In February 1871, just a few months before drawing Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond declined an offer from his friend, Prime Minister Gladstone, to become Director of the National Gallery. [4] Writing soon afterwards to his son Thomas, he explained that ‘if I accept, my painting will go to the wall.’ [5] Richmond was a prolific portrait painter and a faithful recorder of his own image; his self-portraits remain among the most captivating of his works. [6]
In Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond draws particular attention to the pince-nez eyeglasses he wears, making them a distinctive feature of the image. The glasses are suspended from a loop and ribbon, probably fastened to a buttonhole on his lapel. Just a few weeks earlier, Richmond had made another self-portrait drawing in which he wears spectacles rather than pince-nez, and in his 1868 self-portrait now in the Uffizi, he appears for what seems to be the first time with spectacles. In his final self-portrait, painted in 1886 and still in the possession of his descendants, they reappear, by then an established part of his self-image. A photograph taken around 1883 by Alfred Palmer, the son of his close friend Samuel Palmer, shows the artist unspectacled, contemplating a bust, perhaps hinting that the presence or absence of glasses in his self-portraits was as much a statement of self as of vision.
George Richmond, R.A.
(1809-1896)
Self-Portrait in Margate
12 May 1871
Inscribed and dated lower left: "Margate / May 12 1871"
Pen and ink on paper
18.5 x 11 cm
Acquired by a Private Collector, UK
Provenance
By descent from the artist to H.I. Richmond, 1896
His sale, Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 1975, Lot 33
Agnew’s, London, 1976
Private Collection, UK
Exhibited
Thomas Agnew & Sons, Master Drawings and Prints, London, March-April, 1976, no.131
References
[1] The Richmonds visited Margate again in 1872, coinciding with a visit from their close friend Samuel Palmer, and returned once more in 1873
[2] In 1872, the year after Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond painted a now lost work, Sunrise over the Sea at Margate. Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.101
[3] Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.97
[4] ‘In January 1874 Richmond was again offered, at Gladstone’s request, the directorship of the National Gallery. He again promised to think it over, but his refusal was a foregone conclusion.’ Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.104
[5] Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography, 1981, p.100
[6] When Richmond died in 1896, The Times wrote ‘in beauty of draughtsmanship and in subtle indication of expression few have surpassed him.’ A.M.W. Stirling, The Richmond Papers from the Correspondence and Manuscripts of George Richmond and his Son, Sir William Richmond, 1926, p.48
This delicate and engaging self-portrait by George Richmond was made on 12 May 1871 in Margate, when the artist was sixty-two years old. Throughout their fifty-year marriage, Richmond and his wife, Julia Richmond (née Tatham), frequently spent their holidays in Margate, their first documented visit dating to 1842. [1] It was in the countryside surrounding the town, during visits in 1850 and 1853, that Richmond produced some of his most lyrical landscape watercolours. [2]
In the late summer of 1868, Richmond and his family spent two months holidaying in Folkestone. Raymond Lister, in his biography of the artist, describes how Richmond ‘went for invigorating walks, one of which covered twelve miles, spent whole mornings on the beach enjoying the fresh air, and occasionally fished out at sea.’ [3] In February 1871, just a few months before drawing Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond declined an offer from his friend, Prime Minister Gladstone, to become Director of the National Gallery. [4] Writing soon afterwards to his son Thomas, he explained that ‘if I accept, my painting will go to the wall.’ [5] Richmond was a prolific portrait painter and a faithful recorder of his own image; his self-portraits remain among the most captivating of his works. [6]
In Self-Portrait in Margate, Richmond draws particular attention to the pince-nez eyeglasses he wears, making them a distinctive feature of the image. The glasses are suspended from a loop and ribbon, probably fastened to a buttonhole on his lapel. Just a few weeks earlier, Richmond had made another self-portrait drawing in which he wears spectacles rather than pince-nez, and in his 1868 self-portrait now in the Uffizi, he appears for what seems to be the first time with spectacles. In his final self-portrait, painted in 1886 and still in the possession of his descendants, they reappear, by then an established part of his self-image. A photograph taken around 1883 by Alfred Palmer, the son of his close friend Samuel Palmer, shows the artist unspectacled, contemplating a bust, perhaps hinting that the presence or absence of glasses in his self-portraits was as much a statement of self as of vision.